Judith of Bethulia
The emphasis is on spectacle in Griffith's last and most ambitious (4 reels) film for Biograph. Adapted from the Old Testament Apocrypha, the story concerns a beautiful young widow (Blanche Sweet) who saves her walled city from a siege by entering the camp of the enemy, winning the favor of the leader, then cutting off his head with a sword. Resourcefully shot to maintain the illusion of grander sets, the narrative is simplified to a few repeated camera setups. The staging of the rousing battle scenes, the exotica, and the costume epic look are the obvious precedents for the Babylonian sequences in Intolerance.